So, it's been routine for the last fifty years or so to give newborns (in the US at least) an injection of vitamin K. This supplements the limited supply they have at birth and prevents a rare form of internal bleeding. In recent years, some parents have expressed concern about this (apparently as a result of some now-discredited studies, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_K#Vitamin_K_injection_in_newborns) and begun to opt out of having it done.

Surprise, surprise: in Tennessee recently, some babies have been admitted to a children's hospital suffering from brain or GI bleeding because their parents decided modern medicine was just too scary.

When I was born in the early 50's, the infant mortality rate in the US was around 33 per hundred thousand births. Now it is under six. Are these idiots thinking we need to go back in time or something?

When the vitamin industry tells me I need to take a bunch of their pills, I tell them to suck it. But when a doctor says I need a vitamin, I'll listen. But stuff like this, vitamins, and the anti-inoculation crowd, I just don't get.

Ignorance I can almost tolerate. Doing ignorant things I cannot.

Apparently there is a new song in the hymnals: Kill Your Kid for Jesus, Kill Your Kid for God. It must have a catchy tune.

When I was born in the early 50's, the infant mortality rate in the US was around 33 per hundred thousand births. Now it is under six. Are these idiots thinking we need to go back in time or something?

PP, I think that's exactly what some people think. They're so terrified of what they see as the negative effects of modern technology and science that they'd rather (or so they tell themselves) put up with horrendous infant mortality, adult life expectancy being cut by a third or half and hardscrabble unmechanized (and unenhanced by modern fertilizers) farming.

Fortunately, such parasitic reactionaries are and always have been a minority. It's just that with the same science they decry, their ignorant, poisonous rantings get far wider exposure now. A minority- but a potentially harmful one, as my OP shows.

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Live a good life... If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones. I am not afraid.--Marcus Aurelius

When I was born in the early 50's, the infant mortality rate in the US was around 33 per hundred thousand births. Now it is under six. Are these idiots thinking we need to go back in time or something?

PP, I think that's exactly what some people think. They're so terrified of what they see as the negative effects of modern technology and science that they'd rather (or so they tell themselves) put up with horrendous infant mortality, adult life expectancy being cut by a third or half and hardscrabble unmechanized (and unenhanced by modern fertilizers) farming.

Fortunately, such parasitic reactionaries are and always have been a minority. It's just that with the same science they decry, their ignorant, poisonous rantings get far wider exposure now. A minority- but a potentially harmful one, as my OP shows.

I agree completely. But the saddest part is the kids that have these atavistic parents don't get the level of care that is available, nor the shots. Some of them die. Some of them end up being disabled for life. That shouldn't be.

PP, I think that's exactly what some people think. They're so terrified of what they see as the negative effects of modern technology and science that they'd rather (or so they tell themselves) put up with horrendous infant mortality, adult life expectancy being cut by a third or half and hardscrabble unmechanized (and unenhanced by modern fertilizers) farming.

Fortunately, such parasitic reactionaries are and always have been a minority. It's just that with the same science they decry, their ignorant, poisonous rantings get far wider exposure now. A minority- but a potentially harmful one, as my OP shows.

While I'm sure there's a few people like that[1], I suspect that there's a much greater number who have no conception of just how bad things were in the past. To them, the tiny possibility of having an autistic child due to immunizations is far more real than the far greater probability of having their child die or be permanently harmed by lethal childhood diseases which they're not immunized for.

The story you cited here is another example of the same situation. For whatever reason, they were convinced that Vitamin K injections were potentially harmful, and so refused them. I wouldn't be surprised if they had a change of heart now that they've seen the harm such delusional nonsense will do.

The whole libertarian angle to life is growing in all parts. They pretty much distrust everything and everyone. A NY times article addressed this. I think it had something to do with lack of real communities and multgenerational families. You are not part of anything anymore so you have to distrust all.

These parents only have to look at countries where the governments cannot do these simple things--due to lack of money or lack of stable infrastructure-- and see how high the child mortality rates are. Or do they think that more babies die in India and Afghanistan because the people there are not Christians? Then they have to account for the lower rates of children dying in non-Christian Japan.

It is sad that we now have good information about the world at our fingertips, and still so many of us choose to remain ignorant.

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When all of Cinderella's finery changed back at midnight, why didn't the shoes disappear? What's up with that?

To them, the tiny possibility of having an autistic child due to immunizations is far more real than the far greater probability of having their child die or be permanently harmed by lethal childhood diseases which they're not immunized for.

Studies have thrown the original "research" linking autism to immunizations into question, to the extent that most reasonable people reject even the tiny possibility you mention.

And it's not bad enough that the 'grown ups' are endangering their own kids because of ignorance re: immunization, they are endangering MINE too, by allowing outbreaks of nearly extinct diseases in their little pockets of stupidity.

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...religion is simply tribalism with a side order of philosophical wankery, and occasionally a baseball bat to smash...anyone who doesn't show...deference to the tribe's chosen totem.

~Astreja

To not believe in god is to know that it falls to us to make the world a better place.

These parents only have to look at countries where the governments cannot do these simple things--due to lack of money or lack of stable infrastructure-- and see how high the child mortality rates are.

Exactly. It drives me a bit crazy, that people fail to appreciate how immensely better the modern world is compared to any other point in human history. Though there are still tragic inequities, the overall health, diet, education, peacefulness and wealth of human beings has reached unprecedented levels in just a few generations. That's one of the things that gives me some hope for our future.

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Live a good life... If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones. I am not afraid.--Marcus Aurelius

To them, the tiny possibility of having an autistic child due to immunizations is far more real than the far greater probability of having their child die or be permanently harmed by lethal childhood diseases which they're not immunized for.

Studies have thrown the original "research" linking autism to immunizations into question, to the extent that most reasonable people reject even the tiny possibility you mention.

And it's not bad enough that the 'grown ups' are endangering their own kids because of ignorance re: immunization, they are endangering MINE too, by allowing outbreaks of nearly extinct diseases in their little pockets of stupidity.

Correct. One of the problems with little kids is that they can't get most of the inoculations they need (maybe all, I don't know) until they are six months old. Which means that if they get exposed to measles or some other contagious disease during that period, they are unprotected. If everyone was getting their shots, there would be virtually no incidents of most diseases that are preventable via such inoculations.

There is generally a distrust of The Gubment. My dad had a man working for him in Florida who was barely literate. He could read lists of product and check off tables and boxes. I worked outdoors summers with him. I talked things with Donald while we sorted items to pack. He knew I went to college. He did not believe anything that came from a book! He was not dumb, he would quiz me about experiments I had done. If I had first hand experience on some matter, he would "take it into consideration." One day his car broke down and he quit. He found a job he could walk to. It took me and my dad 12 hours to do what he could do in 4 hours alone.